Health Education to Advance Leaders in Integrative Medicine (HEAL-IM) Track

About

UCI School of Medicine is one of the few medical schools in the country to offer a four-year longitudinal educational training track in integrative health, equipping medical students to be future leaders in effective, compassionate, whole-person care that will benefit their patients no matter what specialty they plan on going into.

Health Education to Advance Leaders in Integrative Medicine (HEAL-IM) is a UCI School of Medicine program designed to provide a future generation of physicians with additional training and skills in the tools and philosophies of integrative medicine.

Over four years of medical school, HEAL-IM incorporates a diverse set of teaching methods and resources, including:

  • A set of nationally recognized online integrative medicine education modules
  • Regular seminar and lecture series
  • Experiential, practical skill-building workshops and activities
  • Integrative patient case conferences
  • Integrative practitioner clinical shadowing and care experiences
  • Opportunities to participate in national integrative health conferences
  • Additional opportunities (see curriculum information below)

Fourth-year HEAL-IM scholars in good standing receive a $10,000 partial scholarship for tuition and fees. 

Goals & Objectives

HEAL-IM is designed to focus specifically on advancing integrative medicine research, education and clinical practice to promote individual and population wellness. We are driven by a mission to provide a sound foundation in the principles, philosophy and evidence-based practices of integrative medicine, setting the stage for future professional study and practice.

By the end of the program, students will be able to:

  • Define current understanding of the principles, philosophy, practices and practitioners that comprise the practice of integrative medicine
  • Demonstrate understanding of common integrative therapies, including their history, theory, proposed mechanisms, safety-and-efficacy profile, potential indications, benefits, risks and contraindications
  • Summarize the evidence for how these foundational elements of health and wellness influence health and disease and, in particular, chronic disease.

Finally, they will join a growing community of mentors and leaders who together will advance innovations in integrative medicine.

Application Process

To be considered for the HEAL-IM program, applicants first must be accepted to UCI School of Medicine. Upon acceptance to the medical school, a separate application will be available for prospective students who are not in another mission-based program.

Applications will be reviewed by the HEAL-IM interview committee and students selected for an interview will be contacted.

Learn more about the HEAL-IM Program: UCI School Of Medicine

Contact Us

For inquiries and assistance, please contact Laurie Skorheim at lskorhei@hs.uci.edu.

I had the benefit of knowing all throughout medical school that there was going to be a future in medicine that made me excited, that I was going to be passionate about, that would make me feel fulfilled; I was going to have a better way of dealing with the human parts of medicine.

Siri Loken, MD, HEAL-IM graduate

Siri Loken, MD, in a culinary medicine cooking class.

HEAL-IM is a complete mission fit for me, the clear next step on my path to becoming an Integrative Medicine practitioner and leader in the lifestyle medicine movement. The program offers training in many of the complementary modalities that initially drew me to medicine, modalities that I studied on my own at my own expense for many years…. HEAL-IM will enable me to start becoming the kind of holistic physician I want to be straight out the gates of medical school, not ten years down the line in fellowship.

– Anna Rasmussen, Class of 2023

HEAL-IM has undoubtedly been one of the most important aspects of my medical training thus far. The monthly seminars often touch on modalities of healing that are traditionally overlooked in the allopathic curriculum and I have personally had to deal with my own skepticism and bias while exploring the scientific basis and validity of treatments like biofeedback and traditional Chinese medicine. The engaging, hands-on learning is always fun, but I am most thankful to be able to apply healthy changes to my own life presently and keep a holistic health framework in mind for my clinical interactions.

Dawn Liang, Class of 2023